Category Archives: Joke

Joke

If pigs could fly

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is a book that I am currently reading. There is also a brief German/English account how this sentence came into life. What did you expect when reading the title??

Something like “winners don’t punish”? A smart letter in this week’s Nature with the 3 options of Cooperation(C) – Defection (D) and Punishment (P)?

"nice people"
player 1: C C C C
player 2: C C C C top payoff!
"punish and perish"
player 1: C P P P P
player 2: C D D D D extremely bad!
"turning the other cheek"
player 1: C C C C C
player 2: D D C C C payoff still positive!

we should have known this earlier…

Addendum

link to an earlier post here on “tit for tat”
link to “vengeance is ours” at Edge
link to “sermon on the mount”
link to “Prisoner’s dilemma“

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 01.05.2026
Genetics, Joke

Central limit theorem

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The central limit theorem states that a sum of independent identically distributed random variables (lets say allele counts in genomewide association scans) of finite variance will be approximately normally distributed. Unfortunately the maximum of the distribution will not reflect the true value … or did I get it wrong?

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 01.05.2026
Joke

Why blog writing is something different from writing a paper

This may be obvious, at least if you have read Daniel Gilbert

In 2002, Jane Ebert and I discovered that people are generally happier with decisions when they can’t undo them. When subjects in our experiments were able to undo their decisions they tended to consider both the positive and negative features of the decisions they had made, but when they couldn’t undo their decisions they tended to concentrate on the good features and ignore the bad.

When reading my own writings a second time, I always discover typing errors, crude sentences, and other poor habits – blogs as snapshots of less happier minds?

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 01.05.2026
Joke, Theology

Edge Question wrong

Here comes the second comment on the Annual Edge Question 2008.

When thinking changes your mind, that’s philosophy.
When God changes your mind, that’s theology.
When facts change your mind, that’s science.
What have you changed your mind about? Why?

I would have done it in a different way: Continue reading Edge Question wrong →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 01.05.2026
Joke

thcs n phrmctcl cmpns

Thr r stll tw rmrkbl pcs frm th lst yr hr n my dsk – n s bk rvw by Dr. Jrm Kssrr (th frmr NJM dtr) nd th scnd s bt bk by Dr. Rchrd Smth (th frmr BMJ dtr – s nly Dr. Rchrd Hrtn frm th Lnct s mssng frm ths lst f th mst nflntl mdcl dtrs drng th pst dcd).
Wht mks m wndr tht bth dtrs hv rthr crtcl ccnt n phrmctcl thcs. Dr. Kssrr s wrtng n pn Mdcn Continue reading thcs n phrmctcl cmpns →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 01.05.2026
Joke

Punch line

I have seen the first user looking here for the BMJ Christmas edition already 2 weeks ago — clearly the annual highlight in the biomedical world since 2000. But only today, the 2007 issue is being online. As a former recumbent owner, I can assure you that Professor Shuster’s observation is correct. Even with my folding bike in the Munich S-Bahn I get many responses from the public, usually technical questions by men but also price inquiries by women. Continue reading Punch line →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 01.05.2026
Genetics, Joke

Why men die earlier

It took me nearly one hour to locate also this series of pictures on the net after having seen them recently in the talk of a Spanish colleague.
Yes, there are also more serious comments for example in the Behavioural Issues Blog Continue reading Why men die earlier →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 01.05.2026
Joke, Philosophy

Look here

From an email that I received today:

while open access has provided the scientific community with broader accessibility, little seems to have been done to make better use of the on-line content. We are trying to address this shortcoming through pubcasts. Pubcasts are 5-10 minute video clips which are integrated with the contents of the open access paper.

I agree with the observation that Open Access hasn´t been very innovative so far in technical terms. On the other hand I feel that my job is less about marketing than development. Are you climbing on this bandwagon? Continue reading Look here →

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 01.05.2026